You need to go back seven seasons to find one where at least one NBA coach wasn’t canned before Christmas. Right now we are eight days away from Santa’s visit and it looks like he once again may not bring any pink slips in his bag.

If that changes, it’s because of the Knicks.

While a few other coaches may feel warm seats (Jason Kidd, Dwane Casey) none seem in imminent danger of getting canned. Woodson… that was one ugly ending to their home loss to Washington Monday night. Just poor execution all the way around — not using the foul to give, terrible defensive rotations, going with a wild shot rather than calling timeout to set up a play. Woodson knows he’s on the hot seat and that didn’t help his cause — a lot of Knicks fans want him gone as their Christmas present.

Two things team insiders say continue to work in Woodson’s favor even after the disastrous finish against the Wiz: (1) He’s only had the influential Chandler in the lineup for four games; (2) New York’s limited options in terms of interim coaches (Herb Williams, Darrell Walker or the total coaching novice Allan Houston) add to Woodson’s shelf life.

As I have said more than once, the Knicks’ rough season is more on management than Woodson — they constructed a team that could not win without a healthy Tyson Chandler (and he’s injury prone). J.R. Smith‘s play is not on Woodson either. There are just a lot of flaws in roster construction that are not on thee coach.

Which is why other elite coaches don’t want the job (or they want some roster control with it).

But he seems to have lost the ability to get this team to focus. There is confusion, poor effort and finger pointing. The rotations are odd choices at times.

Plus owner James Dolan has already fired the GM and he will not fire himself, so who is left?

I don’t know for sure, but haven’t Herb Williams and Darrell Walker been assistant coaches in the league for a long time?
Why would one be afraid to give either of them a shot at HC?
The Knocks aren’t just a dumpster fire. They’re a dumpster filled with gasoline on fire.

Tired of isolation.
Tired of JR being in during crunch time.
Tired of them switching EVERYTHING. That’s lazy “defense.”
Tired of them freezing out Andrea every 4th quarter.
Tired of Melo always having to be the one to take the final shot, while standing and holding the ball instead of getting a shot up in case he’s off — which he has been in every single chance in that scenario this season — and most importantly…

I AM TIRED OF ALL THE LIES THAT COME OUT OF MSG. Dolan is so friggin’ paranoid and schizophrenic with how he runs both MSG teams that you can’t ever believe anything they say.

Tired of the constant need to throw away draft picks and young players for older, more expensive vets who tend to be terrible (I’m sure Shump will be dumped at some point this season)

Tired of, and i can’t stress this enough, NO OFF THE BALL MOVEMENT. Let’s keep giving Melo the ball, sending the other four players to the corners and have them watching like always. Seems to work so well.

Tired of seeing the Knicks shuffle the ball around on the perimeter and hoisting up hurried jumpshots when they figure out the clock is gonna expire.

Tired of the lack of hustle/effort/heart in this team. Losing Kidd, Thomas and Sheed could not have possibly impacted them this much.

Tired of the matador defense. Tired of the lack of help defense when needed. Tired of making bad teams look like title contenders.

I’m tired in general as a Knicks fan. Tear this thing down, get as many draft picks as possible, and build this team the right way.

Honestly, I think they should at least explore trading him to see what they could get in return. If they could get a high pick and some promising young players, then I say do it because he’s not getting younger and I’d rather spread the money they would give to him to a group of younger, more team-oriented players. And don’t get me wrong; Melo has been playing really hard and I’m happy to see him crashing the boards a lot more and he’s doing everything he can to help the team, but where is this team going with Melo and a cast of scrubs? They have no threat at the point, no second scorer as long as JR Smith is in the toilet, and to top it off, no draft pick in one of the deepest drafts I’ve ever seen. If the Knicks were tanking and had their pick in this upcoming draft, I’d be more tolerant of this season, but obviously they trade every pick they can. Where is the help for Melo coming from with no pick, no tradeable players outside Melo, Shump and Hardaway, and no cap room? If someone blows the Knicks away with an offer, I’d say take it and hit the restart button

dinofrank60 - Dec 18, 2013 at 12:22 AM

Do Woodson a favor and fire him already. Let him get on with his life instead of wasting his time with the Knicks.

Look, I know this isn’t ALL on Woody. He’s a solid coach. But isn’t this what we saw in Atlanta? ISO teams with absolutely no ball movement and subpar in the playoffs. Now some of it is that he’s been unlucky to have Melo and Joe Johnson as the focal points of his teams. But its like he just lets them do that, and he just tries to take care of the defensive side. But this year without the great defense and stellar three point shooting…i think Woody’s coaching abilities are being exposed, again.